Budget to tackle violence against women and girls will be spent, minister vows
It comes after the National Audit Office warned the Home Office had ‘historically underspent’ funding allocated to tackle the issue.
Money allocated to tackle violence against women and girls (VAWG) will be spent, a minister has said, after a report found previous underspending and failures in the Home Office’s past leadership on the issue.
Government efforts in recent years have not improved outcomes for victims and the Home Office – the main department in charge of work to tackle it – “is not currently leading an effective cross-Government response”, the National Audit Office (NAO) said.
Under the Conservatives, the Home Office had “historically underspent” its own budget allocated to the VAWG Strategy by an average of 15%, the spending watchdog said.
VAWG is a “significant and growing problem” affecting one in 12 women, the NAO said.
A key pledge by Labour when the party came into Government last summer was to halve VAWG in the next decade.
The NAO said to meet this target, the Home Office “will need to lead a co-ordinated, whole-system response that addresses the causes of VAWG”.
Policing minister Dame Diana Johnson said the current Government has a “whole-system approach” that also looks at preventive measures and tackling the criminal justice system and court delays.
She told ITV’s Good Morning Britain: “This is a kind of whole approach across society. It cannot just be for the police, and… one of the criticisms in the National Audit Office report was that the Home Office was basically doing this on their own.
“They weren’t spending their budget.
“We’re taking a very different approach, this is across the system.
“We want to spend the money that’s made available on this really important issue.”
The Home Secretary and domestic violence and safeguarding minister Jess Phillips will set out a full strategy in the spring to meet Labour’s target.
While the Home Office under the Conservatives created a dedicated team to lead its 2021 VAWG strategy, the NAO said the department had “found it challenging to get buy-in from other Government departments”, with an oversight group working to progress the strategy not having met until a year after the launch.
A ministerial oversight group for the strategy “only met four times in three years”, the NAO added.
The prevalence of sexual assault against women aged 16 to 59 in England and Wales was 4.3% in 2023-24, up from 3.4% in 2009-10, the NAO said.
In that same period, incidents of rape and sexual assault against women and girls recorded by police rose from 34,000 to 123,000, although the NAO said this could partly be explained by improved recording of such crimes.
The NAO report raised questions over funding, saying that in comparison to the 2021 illegal drugs strategy, there was no joint spending review bid prepared regarding the VAWG strategy, and it noted historic Home Office underspending in this area.
The watchdog stated: “Our analysis suggests other Government departments spent at least £979 million between 2021-22 and 2023-24.
“The Home Office has historically underspent its own budget allocated to the VAWG Strategy, by an average of 15% between 2021-22 and 2023-24.”
Shadow home secretary Chris Philp defended the Conservatives’ record, telling Sky News: “It’s something which the last government did take incredibly seriously.
“Under successive home secretaries, there was a whole initiative established called Operation Soteria with the police, and actually working with academics to figure out the best way of identifying perpetrators of particularly rape and serious sexual assault and bring them to justice to increase the conviction rate.”
He said there was a “cross-government taskforce” which looked at the justice system’s response to rape, serious sexual assault and violence against women and girls, and there were “a succession of safeguarding ministers who were really committed to this”.
According to the National Police Chiefs’ Council, Operation Soteria was “developed in response to national concern around the investigation of rape and serious sexual assault offences […] and the increasing epidemic that is violence against women and girls”.
The body says the programme helps support forces with the insight of “academic experts” and “practitioner knowledge”.
Gareth Davies, head of the NAO, said: “Government’s efforts to tackle violence against women and girls have not yet improved outcomes for the victims of these crimes.
“The lack of an effective, cross-Government approach and a limited understanding of what works to help reduce these crimes means the Home Office cannot be confident that Government is doing the best it can to keep women and girls safe.
“The new Government has set an ambitious target to halve violence against women and girls within the next decade. A well-informed and effectively implemented cross-Government response is needed, that addresses both the causes and the consequences of these crimes.”
A Home Office spokesperson said the report had looked at the previous government’s “failure to deliver systemic change”, and vowed Labour is “delivering a step-change in the Government’s response”.
They added: “Over the last six months, we have wasted no time in taking action to better protect victims and pursue perpetrators. This includes launching new domestic abuse protection orders, starting the rollout of domestic abuse specialists in 999 control rooms, strengthening the police response to spiking and stalking, and pioneering a truly cross-Government approach to tackling these issues.
“We will not stop until we have a system that protects victims, supports their journey to justice and holds perpetrators to account.”
